LPNs glorified Techs?

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I have heard that LPNs who work in hospitals are basically glorified Patient Care Techs. DO you find this to be the case? I currently work as a PCT ina nursing home and I have supervisors who are LPNs so I know this is not the case in a nursing home. I am going to be in LPN school next year and am tryng to figure out if a hosptal would be best for me, but I have heard there is such a huge difference in the way LPNs are viewed in hospitals versus nursing homes.

Specializes in Geriatrics.

The "N" in my LPN stands for NURSE. I am NOT a RN, nor do i ever claim to be an LPN who does "everything an RN does" I dont. I am proud to be an LPN, and would never claim to be more and I sure wouldnt claim to be less. I value my CNA's, and I value the RN's. What ever happened to teamwork? We all need each other to take care of the patients we have. Why does it always come down to "who has what initals, and just what do they mean?"

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

My hospital keeps pushing me to go on for my RN after I get my LPN and pass my boards. While I would like to do this eventually, I don't want to go straight through even though it would only be another year and on weekends. One advantage to staying an LPN is I won't have to work or be hired on Stepdown.

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I'm an LPN and in my area (Delaware/Maryland) I could NOT get a job as a new LPN in a hospital. At least not without working an 11-7 shift or something (impossible for me to do full time + keep my schooling going!). One hospital, actually offered me a position... as a nurse tech. Granted, I could get some experience in a hospital setting with that but if I went all that way through school and spent the money for school & my boards, why would I want to work as a NURSE TECH?!

They are no LPN's in the hospital I work for. Most LPN's work in LTC's and assisted living places in my area.

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I think that whether or not a hospital treats LVN/LPN nurses as "glorified techs" has to do with the individual facility.

At my first place of employ, a new program was piloted which severely limited the role of the LVN. LVNs were no longer allowed to hang IV fluids, give IV meds, start IVs or flush IVS. LVNs were not allowed to give any narcotic drug, insulin, heparin, or electrolyte (like KCL or CaCL) without an RN supervising. LVNs were not allowed to write care plans or document on care plans. LVNs were not allowed to do any teaching. LVNs were not allowed to do the initial admission assessment on a patient. LVNs were allowed to assess their patients and chart that assessment, but an RN had to come behind them and re-asses and chart as well. Basically, all the LVNs were allowed to do were give oral meds and ADLs.

In that situation, I guess you could argue that the hospital was, in fact, treating the LVNs like glorified techs.

(sidenote: please realize I am NOT saying that is okay or that I personally feel that LVNs/LPNs are glorified techs, because I do not.)

At my current facility, on the other hand, we don't have many LVNs, but the ones we do have do the same job the RNs do, except that they don't hang blood, they don't initiate care plans, and their patients have to be assessed by an RN at least once in a 24 hour period.

So I think how LVNs are regarded/treated really depends on the individual facility.

I have heard that a lot of hospitals are trying to convert to all RN staff, so it seems like the best places (at least in my area) for LVNs to practice is in long-term care facilities or doctor's offices.

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Specializes in Geriatrics/Family Practice.

No LPN's in the hospitals here, just LTC, clinics and homecare. So far where I've worked I've been treated like a LPN and that's just fine with me. Around here you have a better chance of winning the lottery thatn getting into one of our three hospitals.

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Specializes in ICU.

Where im from (Canada), I wouldnt consider the LPN's glorified techs. They can work most units, except ICU we do not utilize them and our ICU nursing is 1:1 primary care. When I worked on the floors, the LPN's were assigned "stable" patients with "predictable" outcomes. Thats not to say that they didnt sometimes go sour and reqired more intensive care, but the RN would usually take over, or they would be transfered to ICU. They have their own patients, do their own assesments but they can not give IV or IM meds so another RN is assigned to do those meds they cannot give. They did most of the things that a RN could do on the floor. In ICU its a bit different and we require RN's with a critical care course.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Wound Care.

At my hospital LPN's work as techs. Not what I would like to see, but it's their policy.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Tele, ER.

A lot of hospitals have phased-out LPNs all-together, or use them only in a tech capacity.

However, in long-term care they are extensively utilized for the type of skills you learn in nursing school. My supervisor when I worked as an aide in long-term care was an LPN, and she was in charge of our entire unit.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I do believe that there should be a more definitive role for the skills that LPNs provide, otherwise, what is the sense of the LPN doing 'mostly everything' or 'everything' the RN does yet, the RN is making more money? I am an LPN working in a hospital clinic, but on the floors, our LPNs are administering potassium, magnesium IV piggybacks. I worked 6 weeks of med-surg and was not comfortable administering those sorts of medications because we are supposedly not assessing the client. We should not be working as techs, because that is a waste of education.

In my clinic, I work more independently than the LPNs on med-surg with the exception of certain vaccinations are supposed to be screened by an RN (pneumonia and influenza vaccines). But, the RNs are so busy, that when you come to them for the screenings, they ask us if we 'asked the questions' and will just place the screening in the computer chart so we can administer and document the vaccination. But, with my other positions as a vaccination nurse in other places, we do not need the RNs to screen, we do it ourselves, educate the patient and give the shot. But, I have been valued and respected by all of the RNs in the clinic and they do not treat me as anything less than a licensed nurse.

I continue to hear that LPNs are being phased out of the hospitals. I have not seen this happen in my area in New York, but wonder if that will become a reality. Funny, even with that, it does not give me the incentive to study to become an RN, because that is not really what I want to do. I plan to take other courses in a different direction to prepare for if this may happen, but for now, I am really more comfortable in the role of the LPN. I wouldn't mind working in LTC, but, the nurse patient ratios are borderlining on dangerous, and would not risk my license to work in a place like that. Anything more than 20 patients to me is over the top, and there should be more than one nurse assigned to 60 residents.

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At my first place of employ, a new program was piloted which severely limited the role of the LVN. LVNs were no longer allowed to hang IV fluids, give IV meds, start IVs or flush IVS. LVNs were not allowed to give any narcotic drug, insulin, heparin, or electrolyte (like KCL or CaCL) without an RN supervising. LVNs were not allowed to write care plans or document on care plans. LVNs were not allowed to do any teaching. LVNs were not allowed to do the initial admission assessment on a patient. LVNs were allowed to assess their patients and chart that assessment, but an RN had to come behind them and re-asses and chart as well. Basically, all the LVNs were allowed to do were give oral meds and ADLs.

In that situation, I guess you could argue that the hospital was, in fact, treating the LVNs like glorified techs.

Giving oral meds and taking care of ADLs is nursing care, isn't it? It sounds like these LVNs were still responsible for patient assessment and documentation. This goes well beyond the role of CNAs and utilizes the LVNs more extensive training. They have responsibility beyond just feeding and toileting patients and blindly popping pills... though at times it may feel like that. However, that's a problem of understaffing, not of job role delineation.

It does seem to be going quite overboard to not even allow LVNs to administer routine insulin, but then again, where does one draw the line between RN and LVN roles? Currently it's unclear.

There is a clear difference between LVNs and RNs and that is that their training. RN school is twice as long as LVN school; it covers all that LVN school does and more. Thus RNs understandably have more job opportunities and are qualified for greater responsibilities. Most would agree with that... but disagree over what the differences in opportunity and responsibility between RNs and LVNS should be.

So there is resentment and confusion. Some LVNs feel slighted for not being allowed to take on certain roles and others feel cheated because they seem to have the same responsibilities as RNs yet are paid substantially less.

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